There are trees all over the place. People's houses and businesses were destroyed in the storms.
It will take several months for Atlantic Canada to restore critical infrastructure after the powerful storm caused an "unprecedented" trail of destruction, officials said on Sunday.
The people of Atlantic Canada haven't seen anything of this magnitude since Hurricane Juan hit in 2003
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Carmen Hartt, a meteorologist at the Canadian Hurricane Center in N.S., said that there was a difference between the two storms. It was the worst tropical system to affect Canada in a generation because of the rain and wind that covered the entire country.
The breadth of the damage to Canada's Atlantic coast, where houses were swept out to sea, roads were washed away and numerous trees felled, was not much different from what it was before the storm hit.
Bill Blair is the federal minister of emergency preparedness and he said the storm was concerning because it is still early in the season. I think it is important that we are prepared.
The sheer size of the area hit by winds and rain makes it different from other storms.
A person points to a damaged house after a storm.
The photo was taken by John Morris.
He said in an interview that there had been a lot of damage. There are trees all over the place. People's houses and businesses were destroyed by the roofs blowing off.
Major transportation infrastructure, from the Canso Causeway to many airports and ferry facilities, was not badly damaged.
There was no estimate of the dollar value of the damages, but Canadian planes were surveilling the region and the Canadian armed forces had been deployed. The storm was moving out to sea above Labrador.
Entire houses and buildings were swept out to sea in Port aux Basques, N.L., due to the storm surge. Blair said an "auberge" in the Les les-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec, and countless fishing buildings located along the coast throughout the region were destroyed.
Blair said that Nova Scotia requested the troops and machinery to clear debris. He said that other provinces are talking about federal aid.
Blair said they were hearing from a lot of people whose homes had been damaged or destroyed. We prioritize hydro restoration, making sure everyone is safe, and that people have access to critical services.
There was no estimate of the dollar value of the damages, but the Canadian armed forces were in the area. The storm was moving out to sea above Labrador.
A tree is lying on a pickup truck after it was hit by a post-tropical storm.
The photo was taken by Ted Pritchard.
Hartt said that from a technical point of view, Juan ranked at the low end of a category 2 with sustained winds of 154 and 177 kilometres per hour compared to the high end of a category 1 with sustained winds of 123 and 123 kilometres per hour.
She said that the eye of the storm swept through the Gulf of St. Lawrence because it was a contained area, causing water levels to go up.
Hartt said that darkness descended on the area on Friday evening as Hurricane Fiona ripped across the Atlantic. She said in a telephone interview Sunday that street lamps went out as power went out and the blackness was accompanied by flashes of light reflecting in clouds.
Hartt said that the winds shook houses and trees at her home. She noticed that the buzz of the ambient was missing.
She said that she heard a few bangs and thought that it was something flying around. Some flashes of transformer exploded. It was frightening.
Even if the worst of the storm had passed, hundreds of thousands of people throughout Atlantic Canada remained without power on Sunday.
Climate change was the topic of discussion almost immediately.
DavidPhillips is a senior climatologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada
Countervailing effects of climate change include something called "shearing" which mitigates storm damage.
Climate change can't be dismissed because it makes storms more likely. Will there be more of these in 50 years? We could see less because of the wind field. They could be more powerful when they happen.
There is a lot more people living along the coast and infrastructure that is vulnerable to such damage.
Blair said the federal government would match donations made by individuals and corporations.
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